Omnichannel Innovation – Cieranthttp://www.cierant.com Mon, 07 May 2018 18:42:42 +0000en-UShourly1Three Icons Look to Transform Healthcarehttp://www.cierant.com/three-icons-look-to-transform-healthcare/ Tue, 06 Mar 2018 17:58:14 +0000http://www.cierant.com/?p=6601We’ve seen Amazon transform retail through their ability to remove the layers of the standard business model and redefine how consumers shop for, pay for, order and receive products. Now, with slow-to-evolve brick and mortar retailers left in the dust and others still scrambling to compete, Amazon is setting its eyes on an all new market: healthcare.

On January 30th, 2018, Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, announced that the company was joining forces with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase to improve healthcare and lower its cost for their hundreds of U.S. employees, which equates to over 900,000 worldwide. Their companies will form an independent healthcare company, leaving insurers, drugmakers, and pharmacy benefit managers to face the ripple effects of market disruption. Stocks of several major health care companies, including insurer UnitedHealth Group, pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts, drugmaker Amgen, and drugstore chain CVS Health, the recent buyer of insurer Aetna — suffered losses immediately following the announcement.

Alongside Bezos are two other business titans leading the venture — world-famous investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffet — and Jamie Dimon, Chairman, CEO, and President of JPMorgan Chase. With the coalition including two of the world’s richest people and one of its most powerful financial executives, skepticism is minimal. Most experts and analysts say they can easily see a place for an “Amazon-like company” in the health care market.

“Tackling the enormous challenges of healthcare and harnessing its full benefits are among the greatest issues facing society today,” Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder said in a statement. “By bringing together three of the world’s leading organizations into this new and innovative construct, the group hopes to draw on its combined capabilities and resources to take a fresh approach to these critical matters.”

The critical issues they’re looking to address? High costs driven by corporate bureaucracy. Benefits navigation complexity. Prescription ordering and delivery inefficiency. Lack of digital workforce transformation. Limited transparency into quality and costs. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! The immediate and most pressing goal for Amazon, Berkshire and JPMorgan, however, is controlling their own significant healthcare expenses. Those growing costs “act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy,” Buffett said in a statement.

The unnamed company will initially consist of Berkshire Hathaway investment officer Todd Combs, JPMorgan Chase managing director Marvelle Sullivan Berchtold, and Amazon senior vice president Beth Galetti. Other operational details, including headquarters location and long-term management team will be announced in the future, the companies said.

But what specific aspects of healthcare might Amazon be positioned to take on? Below are some of the possibilities experts foresee.

Improving Prescription Fulfillment, Delivery & Cost

The complex nature of pharmaceutical manufacturing and delivery is widely seen as a contributor to high costs. One layer of the system that remains confounding is a category of companies called pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, such as Express Scripts and CVS Health’s Caremark. Those two firms alone control about 50% of the category. As middlemen, PBMs handle drug distribution. Some industry leaders blame PBMs for high drug costs, but with Amazon signaling possible intention to launch an online pharmacy, there is potential to cut them out or at least reduce their cost influence.

Amazon has long considered becoming a vehicle for affordable pharmaceutical prescription sales. Speculation intensified after the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Amazon had received approval for wholesale pharmacy licenses in at least 12 states. The licenses are no where near what’s needed to begin shipping drugs to consumers though. The existing licenses give Amazon the ability to sell medical professional-use-only products, such as sutures, ultrasound gel and syringes for use in medical and dental offices or hospitals. Delivering prescription drugs might seem like simply a transportation issue, but it’s not.

“Neither Amazon nor any other online seller can just put drugs next to toys, books and household staples in its warehouses and ship them all in the same box to homes due to complex, state-based regulations around prescriptions,” said Marcus Ehrhardt, partner of the consulting firm PwC’s pharma and life sciences division.

Should Amazon be able to get the required licensing to launch an online pharmacy, they would be able to introduce price-lowering competition, reducing reliance on mail order services and leveraging their network of partnerships with world-class carriers to get prescriptions to patient’s homes with unprecedented speed.

“We recognize that there will be a variety of different models that can each play an important role in successfully controlling health care costs,” CVS Health said in a statement. “We welcome the opportunity to work with all market participants towards the goal of better health outcomes at lower costs.”

Leveraging Data to Motivate Healthy Living

Amazon is not just a master of fulfillment and shipping, but a master in cloud computing and big data. The company excels at analyzing enormous amounts of data to deliver personalized product recommendations in real-time that motivate customers to take specific actions, an incredibly important capability in driving healthcare wellness programs. These powerful data analysis and personalization capabilities could be used to better track, monitor and drive specific consumer healthcare behaviors, particularly among high-risk and chronically ill populations.

Chronic diseases represent about 90% of U.S. health care spending, according to RAND Corp., but many of those conditions could be mitigated with healthier living. Changing behavior sounds practically impossible — except Amazon has done it in retail. One example of this could be with medication adherence. Some 40% of Americans never get their prescriptions filled, and 40% of those who do never get them refilled. Amazon could possibly detect when a consumer is delinquent in ordering a prescription and trigger a reminder communication. They could also assess purchase data of over-the-counter drugs in relation to doctor visits, and send personalized recommendations for more effective treatments and specialists, with consumer reviews and pricing made readily accessible. They could also make better use of claims data to create dynamic customer profiles that can power personalized care management. The data possibilities, and in turn, connected care solutions, are truly endless with analytics powerhouse Amazon and their world-class Web Services involved.

Enabling Alexa as a Personal Health Assistant

Many see Amazon’s digital assistant Alexa playing a potential role in healthcare. While health plans currently offer 24/7 nurse hotlines and Teladoc services, Alexa opens the door to all new virtual health support possibilities. Imagine telling the Amazon Echo your ailments and receiving personalized treatment and doctor recommendations that leverage the medical and prescriptions claims data housed in your “Amazon Prime Healthcare Account”…with doctors available for live chat to fulfill drugs orders and answer questions. The missing link for Amazon, of course, is the doctors and prescribers, which represent huge regulatory and logistical hurdles.

Driving Down Costs Through Disruption

Just as Amazon provided low product prices for consumers by bludgeoning traditional retailers, the coalition could eliminate layers of the health care system to strip out costs. “Amazon’s track record of disrupting well-established industries can’t be discounted,” Jefferies stock analyst David Windley said in a note to investors.

Perhaps the biggest key to the coalition leaders’ strategy is their disavowal of profit motives. The new company they plan to establish will not seek to profit off of health care, unlike the industry’s leading for-profit insurers, drug makers and many health care providers. “Bezos and Buffett very much understand playing the long game instead of the drive for quarterly earnings — and that’s essential in trying to solve the problems in health care,” says Verrill Dana, legal professional James Roosevelt, Jr., who up until now served as CEO of Tufts Health Plan and chair of insurance trade association for America’s Health Insurance Plans.

U.S. employers provide health care insurance to about 150 million people, and although Amazon, Berkshire and JPMorgan represent only a sliver of that pie, it’s “a significant enough use-case to see how employers can help to drive down the costs,” said Vaughn Kauffman, U.S. health services and new entrants advisory leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers. The partnership of the three companies emphasizes the dissatisfaction employers have with the costs of health care, he said, and if one employer of nearly a million people makes a move like this, it’s naturally going to cause a domino effect across the industry.

New Thinking – New Results.

Republicans and Democrats have been struggling for decades to fix our broken healthcare system, but perhaps these three business titans can finally overcome party divisions and unite the country around progressive, technology-based solutions. While we cannot predict exactly how they will apply data and technology to create an enhanced healthcare delivery model, one thing is clear – they will not be just another startup insurance company, but the foundation of an all new insurance model that will stimulate desperately needed industry growth.

]]>Kroger’s “Game Day Greats” Scores Bighttp://www.cierant.com/krogers-game-day-greats-scores-big/ Wed, 28 Feb 2018 15:40:27 +0000http://www.cierant.com/?p=6571Kroger ran their annual “Game Day Greats” campaign, but this time, with all new prizes, omnichannel tactics, and manufacturer participation.

With Kroger’s Game Day Greats Instant-Win Sweepstakes program, shoppers can instantly win up to 23 food product prizes considered to be part of the game day greats collection. Products from popular brands like Pepsi, Goldfish, Campbell’s, Ragu, Tyson and more were all ups for grabs. Open to loyalty cardholders, Kroger shoppers can participate in the sweepstakes by visiting gamedaygreats.com and selecting their local store. To play, players pull open four tabs – or “panels” – to reveal symbols. Similar to a scratch-off card, if a tab reveals three trophy symbols in a row, you are a winner, and the digital coupon for the free SKU can be uploaded to your shopping card. The initial, fall 2017 run of the sweeps awarded 88,300 digital coupons for free SKUs – more than three times the prize pool of last year’s game!

But offering Instant-Win to footballs fans looking to create a guest-pleasing party spread without spending big was just a portion of the program. Elaborate in-store marketing, including floorstands, floor clings and shelf talkers, creatively incorporated the program tagline – “Where Food and Fans Unite” – and drove shoppers to gamedaygreats.com to access party recipes, place party platter orders, and explore recipes incorporating products from participating brands, including Hershey Co.’s Reese’s, Mondelez International’s Ritz, Kellogg Co.’s Cheez-It and Unilever’s Hellmann’s.

By promoting an online community of party-planning resources and food prize sweepstakes, participating manufacturers were able to effectively position their products as the essential ingredients of “game day great” dishes. They were also able to engage fans in discovering and exchanging winning game day recipes and party hosting ideas by cross-media promoting the website content via email blasts and social media posts leveraging #GameDayGreats. These social media posts effectively worked to generate football fan food conversation, encouraging them to share their own “game day greats” – aka – recipes for dishes that put participating brand products to inventive and tasty use!

Another way in which Kroger fully powered the creation of a successful Superbowl celebration was by giving Anheuser-Busch InBev a staring role in the Game Day Greats campaign by running their exclusive “Tailgate Prize Vault” rewards program. Tailgate Prize Vault allows shoppers to redeem points for certain product purchases via tailgateprizevault.com by uploading a photo of their store receipt. Points can also be earned by uploading a picture of an in-store display of the campaign or by writing a promotional post via Facebook or Twitter using the hashtags #tailgateprizevault and #sponsored. Unlike the Game Day Greats sweeps, which awarded food items, points could be redeemed for branded merchandise, including Budweiser sunglasses (25 points), a Bud Light folding chair (250 points) or a Michelob Ultra duffle bag (650 points). This program effectively drove in-store beverage sales by incentivizing the beer run – with each trip enabling the fan to earn more and more items to create the ultimate tailgate or at-home viewing experience. Perhaps even more significant though was their allowance of shoppers to earn swag by becoming campaign sponsors, successfully working to generate consumer-driven campaign promotion, often the most effective kind of all. Whether celebrating at-home or at-game, Kroger enabled shoppers to earn the gear, food, beverages and recipes needed for ultimate game-day enjoyment!

Game Day Greats success can also be contributed to its early start. Conducted in two waves, program awareness and hype was generated far in advance. The campaign was first run from Aug. 20 to Sept. 23, 2017, then re-launched from Dec. 24 107 to Feb 02, 2018, this time awarding 66,3000 digital coupons! Digital tactics that supported run two included display ads on websites such as TalkingPointsMemo.com and ImpactWrestling.com, carousel ads on chain home pages, and Facebook and Twitter updates promoting the coupons and recipes found on the campaign website. Pepsi and Kellogg Co.’s Cheez-It also deployed Game Day Greats shelf talkers via SmartSource, while standees and balloons from the retailer supported the effort. TV, radio spots and press ads in newspapers further rounded out the marketing campaign.

By appealing to the football fan culture of community and leveraging the complete marketing mix to their advantage, Kroger was able to bring fans together in conversation around the second most important aspect of the day – Food.

]]>UnitedHealthcare’s Debuts Digital Playbookhttp://www.cierant.com/unitedhealthcares-debuts-digital-playbook/ Wed, 31 Jan 2018 20:47:52 +0000http://www.cierant.com/?p=6496At the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2018 in Las Vegas, UnitedHealthcare demonstrated some of their latest digital health innovations, each designed to help simplify the consumer health care experience of Employer-Sponsored (Group) insurance plans. Three of the core innovations, soon to re-define the way millions of their enrollees select, enroll and use their healthcare, include:

Personalized On-Boarding Platform:

Employees are being presented with more and more different health plan options from their company and even though they may all be from the same carrier, they are each extremely different in benefits design, making it difficult to determine which is most suitable to one’s unique individual or family needs and budget constraints. United’s digital on-boarding platform helps make the decision more straight forward through a step-by-step process that helps guide employees to the plan that’s most right for them. This process is primarily driven by a survey that enables employees to enter aspects of their personal and financial health, then view and select the relevant clinical, wellness or financial programs available offered through each plan, including behavioral health, weight loss, pregnancy support, spending account, and other programs that are key drivers of plan selection.

Apple Pay® Options for HSA:

UnitedHealthcare Individual and Employer-Sponsored plan participants with Optum Bank health savings accounts and an Apple device are now able to pay for HSA-eligible medical and prescription expenses with Apple Pay, one of the easiest and most secure ways to pay today for Apple device owners. All the member needs to do to activate Apple Pay is to add the Optum Bank debit card information to their Wallet app. To pay at pharmacies that support Apple Pay, all the consumer needs to do is press the Apple Pay symbol on the card reader, press their finger to the Touch ID button on their phone, and hold the phone near the card reader screen. That’s it – no swiping – no entry of card data – and less time at the register as a result. In having Apple Pay right in your phone- everywhere you go, members are always prepared to cover unexpected medical expenses. This is of huge convenience in those long post-work pharmacy lines many of us are familiar with. Apple Pay is also the easiest way to pay on the web when purchasing prescriptions online for home delivery or paying for medical expenses. So long as you’re using an iPhone, iPad or Mac device, you can pay with the Touch ID – never having to create an account or fill out lengthy forms of bank information. This is not only a more convenient option, but also more secure as your card number is never stored on your device or on Apple servers, and you’re never exchanging card information with merchants.

Customized Claim Videos:

One of the most challenging aspects of managing one’s healthcare benefits can be interpreting Evidence of Benefits – a document you are sent following the occurrence of a medical expenses that explains how much insurance covered and how much you owe, but typically in a highly convoluted way with a variety of complex codes you must refer to. While other payers have tried to ease EOB understanding by creating interactive PDFs with help tabs and virtual concierges, UnitedHealthcare took it ten steps further by developing personalized videos to explain each and every member’s EOB. The brief videos provide a step-by-step breakdown of exactly how each claim was processed and how much is owed. Plan participants will be able to access customized videos in early 2018 via desktop computers and mobile devices.

Other digital innovations that were demonstrated at CES 2018 include UnitedHealthcare Motion®, the UnitedHealthcare Healthy Pregnancy mobile app, Virtual Visits, and the health and well-being solution – Rally®. Earlier in the week, UnitedHealthcare also announced a collaboration with DexCom, Inc. to launch an individualized glucose management program driven by wearable technology and personalized support to help people with Type 2 diabetes manage their condition in real-time. That initiative is part of a broader effort called Navigate4Me, in which health navigators help MA members manage chronic diseases by leveraging various data sources. Each of these strategic partnerships and supporting digital technology innovations are orientated around making it easier for people to select, use and understand their health benefits during enrollment and following medical care through highly personalized and connected, cross-device content.

“Consumers are asking for and expecting customized, connected digital health resources that help make access to care easier and more convenient,” said Richard Migliori, M.D., chief medical officer of UnitedHealth Group. “UnitedHealthcare invests more than $3 billion annually in data, technology and innovation to help design a health system that is more personalized, intuitive and efficient.”

]]>Five Ways Kroger is Driving the Store of the Futurehttp://www.cierant.com/five-ways-kroger-is-driving-the-store-of-the-future/ Tue, 30 Jan 2018 17:56:36 +0000http://www.cierant.com/?p=6428Kroger is the largest U.S. grocer and second largest U.S. retailer, but with enormous presence, comes enormous responsibility to drive the future of grocery. Fortunately, the mass supermarket chain is not disappointing, in fact, they’re exceeding on many accounts. In October of last year, they announced their “Restock Kroger Plan,” and while it’s only January, results have already surpassed expectations. The plan consists of four pillars: Redefine the Food and Grocery Customer Experience, Expand Partnerships to Create Customer Value, Develop Talent, and Live Kroger’s Purpose. Below are five of the ambitious steps Kroger has courageously taken to drive the store of the future as part of their plan.

Integrating Shoppable Recipes Platform

In January of 2018, Kroger announced that it had integrated the Myxx shoppable recipe platform with more than 1,300 stores across 17 states. The platform allows users to search through more than 50,000 shopable recipes that are connected to their local retailers. Users can select the recipes they want to make and with just a click, all of the items needed auto-populate into a dynamic shopping list. The smart shopping list can be used in-store with an aisle-by-aisle guided list or the the user can send the list to one of their local retailer’s online cart for curbside pickup or at-home delivery. The platform is free for users and even allows for filtering by food preference or dietary restriction. In offering this platform to its customers, Kroger is able to compete with the convenience of online grocery shopping and the rapid adoption of meal kit programs. The platform also offers more choice to the consumer, with the ability to purchase in-store or online, compare product prices across brands and receive promotions for local Kroger stores and the CPG brands they partner with. Myxx plans to expand functionality across the entire Kroger family of retailers this year.

Growing Mobile Payment & Couponing Capabilities

In December of 2017, Kroger teamed up with Chase Pay—the digital engagement wallet from JPMorgan Chase & Co.— to offer mobile payments with select retail markets and e-commerce programs. Through the partnership, Chase’s 65 million customers will have an opportunity to use Chase Pay at Kroger for online and in-lane purchases. The Chase Pay app creates a secure, scannable QR code that can be scanned at the register or via in-aisle scanning devices that allow for entry of mobile payment credentials. With mobile wallets, Kroger is creating a seamless shopping experience for their customers, reducing lines and time, while at the same driving down the cost of checkout for re-investment in strategic growth. But offering mobile payment was just the first step for Kroger in their mobile plans. Kroger also acquired digital coupon and promotions provider, YOU Technology Brand Services, in order to expand upon their ten year relationship with the company that has long powered the incredibly popular Kroger app. Part of the goal was also to establish a presence in YOU headquarters and technology innovation hub—Silicon Valley. Now operating as an independent company within Kroger, YOU Tech is helping to provide hundreds of millions of personalized digital coupons to Kroger customers, with digital coupon downloads having recently reached 1 billion downloads and digital revenue having grown 109% in the third quarter of 2017 as a result.

Expanding Home Delivery & Curbside Pickup Options

In addition to the announcement of partnership with Chase Pay in December of last year, Kroger also announced that QFC, a division of the company, would offer home delivery options to QFC stores in Puget Sound and Portland. Home delivery was made possible through partnership with Instacart, an on-demand retail delivery service. Their service would serve as a complement to ClickList, an online ordering service for curbside pickup where online orders are streamed into tablets mounted atop grocery carts that Kroger employees use to shop their way down grocery aisles to fulfill online orders. Instacart was a natural partner for Kroger because Instacart is designed for customers who prefer doing their online grocery shopping from local stores, where they know the products. Similar to ClickList, Instacart “shoppers” (aka store associates), fulfill the orders by hand-picking the items from the store and delivering them to the customer within a scheduled one-hour time frame. By expanding ClickList and offering home delivery to the shopping option mix, Kroger is meeting consumer demands for the convenience of shopping anyway they choose. And, by using its grocery stores as fulfillment centers, Kroger is transforming its retail showrooms into multi-channel shopping environments.

Creation of Cloud Enablement Team

As an additional effort to accelerate their digital initiatives, in November of 2017, Kroger expanded their cloud computing portfolio with Google Cloud Platform (GCP). While Kroger formerly operated with Google, Microsoft and Pivotal, the portfolio expansion brought a new level of capability that has accelerated the delivery of technology-based innovations. To manage the portfolio, Kroger created a cloud enablement team. Comprised of Kroger Technology associates and external recruits, the team focuses on different aspects of cloud computing: product management; private and public cloud engineering and operations; cloud architecture; code infrastructure; automation; and security architecture.

Development of IoT Inspired Infrastructure

Kroger has developed RSI (Retail Site Intelligence), an interconnected, enterprise IT architecture that leverages a multi-protocol approach of ZigBee radios, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth access points, strategically mounted onto IP video cameras that number anywhere from 120 to 200 per store. Every camera in the store equates to a supercomputer of its own, and every camera is feeding data to the company’s operations, merchandising, LP and shopper marketing teams. The system enables both consumer-facing shopping tools, such as POS solutions and mobile shopping apps, as well as key facets of operations, primarily loss prevention, inventory management and security. On the operations side, a temperature-monitoring solution allows for remote temperature control of refrigerated foods, while on the consumer-facing side, sensor-laden shelves activate digital displays and mobile push notifications of production suggestions. The system also supports a video analytics application that is being used to log, study and determine customer behavior based on sentiment, allowing for real-time store associate intervention when customer disappointment is detected. The RIS system has already saved the company millions in redundant equipment, labor and cost, while enabling consumer behavioral analytics to be collected and acted upon in real-time…a capability no other grocery retailer has achieved.

It is clear that through ongoing steps such as these, Kroger is determined to win the omnichannel arms race and transform from a retail store—to a shopping experience that transcends the bounds of channels and meets the consumer when and where they choose to shop.

“Our efforts are all about making things easier for our customers and providing personalized, affordable and exclusive options that fit their needs,” said Mr. McMullen , Executive Vice President and CFO of Kroger. “Seamless will play a major role in redefining the grocery customer experience. Our hypothesis has always been that our customers will want to have options on how they engage with us. This hypothesis shaped our strategy, and we’ve been executing that strategy by accelerating Kroger’s digital and e-commerce efforts for the last several years.”

Retailers looking to Kroger as a source of inspiration should recognize that omnichannel innovation depends on building a network of collaborative partnerships, investing in data and analysis capabilities, supporting internal IT and client associate development, and migrating operations to agile, cloud-based systems that can integrate in-store and online into cohesive experiences.

]]>Dominating the Holidays with Ownable Experienceshttp://www.cierant.com/dominating-the-holidays-with-ownable-experiences/ Tue, 30 Jan 2018 17:56:08 +0000http://www.cierant.com/?p=6467The 2017 holiday season was one for the books, according to the National Retail Federation. Despite a record number of retail bankruptcies and store closures in 2017, the holiday season saw consumers come out in full force — both in-store and online. Sales numbers were up 11.5% from 2016. This increase is the largest jump we’ve seen since 2010, when sales rose due to the end of the Great Recession.

While the focus this season was similar to any other – find a way to connect with the customer in a profitable way – sales data shows that this focus shouldn’t begin when November hits, but that the push for the biggest selling season of the year needs to be a year-round effort. Data also shows that retailers and manufacturers shouldn’t try to master every possible channel and touch point to succeed. The masters of the season were those who narrowly focused on one distinctive event they could uniquely own and promote across media. Below are three examples of companies finding their strength by setting tightly focused goals and developing the cross-channel innovations to support.

Campbell’s “Friendsgiving” Program Millennials are being given credit for coining the term “Friendsgiving” and expanding the popularity of this modern-take to Thanksgiving through social media promotion. According to CNN Money, the term first appeared on UrbanDictionary.com in 2009 and by 2016, more than 75,000 Facebook events were created using the expression. A gathering of friends that typically occurs in late November on a day other than the fourth Thursday, Friendsgiving is increasingly becoming an important part of the holiday season, as it acknowledges the fact that family comes in many forms and that friendship is one of the greatest relationships to be grateful for. Campbell’s recognized the popularity of this trend, and partnered with Target to dominate this niche segment of the season.

Development of the Friendsgiving program began with Campbell’s analyzing Target’s holiday shopping data, and finding that only 10% of holiday shoppers bought their side dish items from Target – a major business challenge. In partnership with The Mars Group, Campbell’s set a goal of increasing side dish sales by one percent, recognizing that if successful, this one percent jump would translate to an additional $11 million in sales. In order to secure buy-in from Target, Campbell’s had to position the program as a long-term strategy to establish the retailer as the go-to resource for Friendsgiving planning. The positioning worked, and Target deployed their media network team to help create a media plan.

Central to the media plan was the creation of a Friendsgiving landing page within Target.com that was broken up into three territories. The first was “lifestyle driving,” using images that depicted friends at casual Friendsgiving gatherings using Campbell’s and complementary brand products to create memorable experiences. The second was the “get the party started” section, featuring appetizers and drinks, and the third was “spotlighted side dishes.” The content-rich landing pages not only worked to drive side dish sales, but allowed for increased visibility of complementary brands that bring Campbell’s recipes together, including Del Monte and Swanson. The page shared relevant recipes, decoration inspiration, and how-to videos for first-time hosts, going beyond pure product pushing by offering content and tools to support the complete Friendsgiving experience. The media plan also included promotion of the Friendsgiving content across social media, which according to Kara Russo, vice president of the retail marketing group at The Mars Agency, “really paid off.”

By creating an incremental occasion Target could own, success was delivered in the form of a 33.4% in-store sales lift and a doubling of Target’s Cartwheel redemption.

BJ’s Top Toys Exclusive BJ’s employs toy experts each year to predict what the top selling toys each holiday season will be in order to present BJ’s as not only the authority on toys, but the key holder of the hottest toy products kids feign for and parents jump over hoops to find. BJ’s 2017 “Exclusive Top 10 Toys List” was announced in September, with the lineup including new SKUs from Mattel’s Barbie; Hasbro’s Play-Doh; Nerf and Baby Alive; and Disney Pixar’s Cars 3 – all only available through the retailer. The early Fall release allowed BJ’s enough time to offer promotions and to enlist YouTube influencers to film sponsored videos showcasing the products and running giveaways for their subscribers. This was followed by email blasts and social media updates that heralded the toys’ arrival in stores and offered limited time to discounts. As the top toys arrived in store, BJ’s continued to build upon the exclusivity they had already generated around the products. They displayed the items on custom pallets that showed their “Top 10” status loud and clear – enforcing the retailer’s dominance in the toy category while increasing product appeal by setting them apart as if product “celebrities.”

In addition to the in-store displays, BJ’s pushed their digital presence with a newly launched mobile app that allows users to easily browse and purchase items from their mobile device. The app also enables more savings opportunities via the Add-to-Card coupon gallery, which integrates coupons from both the retailer and its brands.

With the promotion of the Top 10 list and a revamped app that makes affording and purchasing the items easier, BJ’s successfully integrated in-store with mobile and showed that owning a distinctive event that creates consumer conversation is an effective way to establish category leadership.

Target’s Reimagined Return Process Its common knowledge that the holiday season is the biggest selling season, but with this comes the most popular time of the year for returns. According to the RFC, close to 10% of consumer goods sold are returned, with nearly a quarter of these returns occurring during the holidays. The numbers go even higher when discussing e-commerce purchases, as the RFC estimates 15-30% of items purchased online will be returned. Recognizing that the return process can be a drain on the gift recipient and the retailer, Target missioned to design an all new option for gift-giving that doesn’t require unhappy recipients to track down a receipt or enter a store. It’s called the “GiftNow” button.

Featured on the product pages of target.com, the “GiftNow” button allows shoppers to purchase an item as a gift and send an automated notification to the recipient’s email address as an electronic “gift box,” similar to e-greeting cards. Senders can send the e-gift instantly or choose a specific date. But here’s the real kicker…instead of it being a simple notification that tells the recipient the item is en route, the email allows the recipient to accept the chosen gift or opt to select a different item. Not only does this take the awkwardness out of the returned gift process, but it saves Target in the operating expenses that come with the return rush, from additional store associate labor to restocking and shipping fees. Additionally, by Target allowing gift receivers to accept or change the item before the sale is even processed, they reduced the need to re-sell returned items at discounted rates.

Through development of the GiftNow button, Target successfully eliminated the return process from the holiday shopping experience and all the pain points that come with it – allowing for a seamless gift-giving process that is a win to both the giver and the receiver.

The holiday season may only come once a year, but it is vital for companies to plan for it year-round. It’s not purely about the products and gift-giving though, it’s about the holistic holiday experience, from the point when thanksgiving recipe research begins, to the last return of the sweater that didn’t fit. Winners of the holiday season didn’t stress to find success at every touchpoint though, but chose to focus on creating distinctively ownable events that would add a new, memorable layer to the holiday path-to-purchase. Although the 2017 season has ended, retailers and brands now have an opportunity to carry the momentum of last year’s fourth quarter into the start of 2018.

]]>Proctor & Gamble Tackles & Scoreshttp://www.cierant.com/proctor-gamble-tackles-scores/ Thu, 30 Nov 2017 19:18:57 +0000http://www.cierant.com/?p=6352Football event marketing normally makes up a significant portion of a shopper marketer’s program playbook as brands strive to execute programs that position their products as staples of the game day experience. With the Super Bowl just two months away and shopper marketers looking to strengthen their game day tactics, there is one company that is standing apart from the pack. By strategically leveraging localization and gamification, P&G has been tremendously successful this season in both publicizing their NFL sponsorship and connecting their products to the game day experience. Below are specific examples of their winning tactics in-action:

Leveraging Local Loyalties From September 21st to October 18th, P&G paired with BJ’s Wholesale Club to run a sweepstakes targeted to the team loyalties of BJ’s East Coast operating region. Sweeps entry was supported by a dedicated microsite (pgfootballsweeps.com) and winners were able to choose home game tickets for any one of the three most popular teams in the region – the New York Giants, New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins. In targeting the rewards to the unique preferences of the region, P&G experienced high sweeps participation. This demonstrates that regional relevancy is key to optimizing rewards appeal and program participation. As part of the sweeps, P&G brands’ Secret, Olay, Head & Shoulders, and Old Spice were given secondary merchandising space in BJ’s with signage and pallets outfitted with wraps featuring the slogan, “Go Fresh or Go Home.” The in-store marketing was further supported by an email campaign and a meet & greet event with New England Patriots’ wide receiver, Brandin Cooks. The event was held at a Northborough, Massachusetts location, where Patriots loyalty is naturally high, furthering developing local level engagement.

While this was the first year the CPG giant activated it’s sponsorship at BJ’s, the tactics used aren’t unfamiliar to the company. Supermarket chain Publix renewed their “Tackle Everything” sweeps with P&G for the third year in a row. Running from August 27th to October 11th, the sweeps allows customers to enter into regional prize pools for a chance to win game tickets, stadium tours, meet & greet opportunities and more for their southeast team of choice, including the Miami Dolphins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars. Consumers were driven to the entry page of the co-op website (promotionpg.com) via a feature in the retailers’ coupon book, radio spots and in-store standees featuring QR codes.

By partnering with retailers to deliver localized game day shopper marketing innovation, P&G was able to develop more personalized connections with their football fan market. CPGs looking to improve their game day shopper strategies should consider how they can leverage localization and customer collaboration to appeal to distinct hometown demographics and loyalties.

Gamifying the Rewards Experience The campaign that has been one of P&G’s most interactive this season is their “Score in the Redzone” campaign at Walgreens. Running from September 3rd 2017 to February 3rd 2018, the season-long rewards program allows Walgreens’ shoppers to upload their receipts to a dedicated promotional site (scoreintheredzone.com) to earn credits for each product they purchase. Eligible products include over 100 items from 42 P&G brands. Each eligible item counts as one credit or “touchdown.” In addition to using touchdowns towards the purchase of P&G products, customers are also able to apply their points towards entry for a chance to win tickets to the Super Bowl or the Pro Bowl, as well as to purchase NFL merchandise, from lower cost items like t-shirts, to higher costs items like signed swag. In-store marketing promoted the program, including dedicated endcaps, circular features and co-op FSIs.

By creating a game-like rewards experience that taps into the competitive nature of the season and the desire for interactive experiences beyond the TV screen, P&G was able to effectively drive shoppers from in-store to online as a fully omnichannel experience. While this program enabled P&G to connect with football fans across the nation, similar to the regional programs, it still granted customers the power to choose the rewards of their choice. The program also built the foundation for an ongoing loyalty rewards program with abundant personalization opportunities available from both the garnered purchase receipt data and the prize redemption data.

In leveraging localization and gamification, P&G hit many touch points with their consumer and set a strong foundation for future program development. The CPGs that want to conquer game day should follow their example and find ways to promote their products in both highly personalized and interactive ways that serve as an extension of the game watching experience.

]]>Coca-Cola Freestyle Changes the AI Gamehttp://www.cierant.com/cokes-next-generation-vending-machine/ Tue, 31 Oct 2017 18:53:52 +0000http://www.cierant.com/?p=6242Coca Cola is stepping up their creativity game and getting serious about digital transformation. To help drive their digital transformation mission, Coke recently hired its first Digital Marketing Officer, David Godsman, who is responsible for overseeing the transformation of customer experience, operations, new business and culture.

As part of the customer experience transformation, Godsman and Coca Cola’s Global Senior Digital Director, Mariano Bosaz, decided it was time to explore the development of a program that would leverage the two components that have been key to the successful digital transformation initiatives Coca-Cola has implemented across other business segments – big data and artificial intelligence. Their quest for AI innovation led them to examine Coca-Cola Freestyle.

Introduced in 2009, Coca-Cola Freestyle is a touchscreen soda fountain that allows consumers to customize their drink choice through access to more than 100 drink choices that consumers can mix and match the flavors of to create their own custom beverage blend. Coca Cola recognized the potential of the Freestyle fountains in realizing that with each flavor creation, tremendous consumer preference insights were being generated. Wanting to tap into the data collection capabilities of the fountains, Coke missioned to develop an artificially intelligent version of the Freestyle machine that would enhance the interactivity of the customer experience while at the same time streaming new layers of customer data back to the company.

The first step Coca Cola took in making the machines artificially intelligent was connecting them to the Cloud by building a retrofit kit compatible with the most popular machines on the market. Once cloud-connected, Coke could then digitally monitor the machines and allow consumers to buy drinks via phone before reaching the machine. Cloud integration was only the first step though. Chambers’ team then set out to create a digital user experience to complement the enhanced vending machines. He worked to make the fountains a true vehicle for digital transformation of customer experience by integrating three key forms of digital engagement: mobile, social and promotions.

Mobile Upon connecting the machines to the Cloud to support mobile payment capability, Coca Cola developed the Freestyle app to give this capability a consumer-facing interface. Through the app, the consumer is able to pay for their drink via smartphone and grab it at the fountain nearest them without even touching the machine screen. The features of the app go far beyond smartphone payment though. When a user downloads the app, they are prompted to create an account or sign in with a social media account. Once signed in, all features of the app become available, including a Freestyle machine location finder, a QR code reader, personalized promotions, and of course, the most fun element, the “Create Your Own Mix” feature. The “Create Your Own Mix” feature allows a user to select up to three separate drink selections to customize their beverage with, as well as the the ability to save and even name their “mix.”

Social Coca-Cola’s big data initiatives were met by connecting users to the app via their social media accounts, thereby gaining company access to consumer data contained within app users’ social accounts that can used for re-targeting efforts and personalized offers. In addition to supporting consumer insights, the app encourages users to share their custom mix creations through social media platforms or via text, empowering them to be brand advocates and engage with the digital Coke community. But this was just the beginning. Coca-Cola took social ten steps further by integrating chatbot messaging. Through the chatbot platform, users can opt for conversations with the “vending bot” via Facebook Messenger or PandoraBots (an AI Web service). Using data gathered through the consumer’s Facebook activity, current location, and tone of conversation, the bot customizes it’s dialect and attitude to each user, creating a direct line of communication with brand. The bots (Internet robots) develop a cognitive understanding of what’s being said in each conversation, promising a unique experience with every interaction and in turn, enabling two-way personalized communication at-scale.

Promotions The app also serves as an extension of shopper marketing, notifying the consumer if there is a promotion going on in partnership with the retailer. An example of this is a consumer receiving a promotion for a movie theater nearest them that reads: “Pour two drinks at participating theaters by 10/31 and receive a free movie ticket.” So how does the consumer redeem their mobile-placed drink order? Through QR code capability, the consumer scans the code found on the Freestyle machine with their phone, and the consumer’s selection of custom mixes appear on the Freestyle screen in front of them. The promotions offered in-app aren’t limited to free movie tickets though. Given that Coca-Cola Freestyle offers a portfolio of soda brands, these brands are able to run their own promotions as well. During the month of October, Fanta ran a sweepstakes that allowed users a chance to win a digital download of the movie “The Mummy.” To enter, all users had to do was try one of the Fanta Eerie-sistable mixes or a Fanta drink. Promotions are also supported through the machine’s ability to remotely adjust the prices of products sold via these machines and offer special discounts on products, making it easier to introduce discounts and promotions at a specific location, while automatically sending inventory and sales information back to the company to support post-promotion analysis.

In 2009, it was hard to believe that the creation of the Freestyle machine would bring this much entertainment and ease to buying a drink, but with Coke’s vision of digital transformation through artificial intelligence, it seems that the possibilities of how manufacturers connect with consumers are endless. As consumer goods companies look to reverse declining sales trends, digital innovations that surprise people through experience might be the key to driving long-term revenues.

]]>Walgreens Back-to-School SM Inspirationhttp://www.cierant.com/walgreens-back-to-school-sm-inspiration/ Wed, 27 Sep 2017 18:01:15 +0000http://www.cierant.com/?p=6177Back-to school is the second largest shopping season for retailers, following closely behind Christmas. While some shoppers and retailers may believe that back-to-school shopping is primarily comprised of pencils, binders and notebooks, the retailers who find the most success extend the scope of back to school readiness far beyond classroom supplies. Out of the 77 million students in school, 19.1 of those are college and graduate students. These students aren’t just looking for school supplies – they’re restocking on needs for their dorms and updating their wardrobe. They’re also stocking up on personal care items, from makeup to face cleansers to shampoo and more, giving retailers an opportunity to promote new products and try to win new brand loyalty.

One retailer that has gone above and beyond in not only expanding the product scope of their back-to-school shopper marketing, but the range of program tactics used, is Walgreens. Walgreens leveraged the power of influencers, personalization and social responsibility to give their back-to-school marketing campaigns an all new millennial appeal.

The Power of Influencers To increase integration of their mobile app into the back-to-school shopping experience, Walgreens began a campaign last summer called #MyWalgreensApp that leveraged influencers to promote the ease and friendly user experience of their upgraded mobile app. Walgreens stressed the importance of using influencers that could support the brand, while also staying true to the influencers’ own personal stories. They partnered with Danielle Gray of “The Style & Beauty Doctor” blog and Katie Manwaring of “Katie’s Bliss” blog to endorse the ease of printing photos directly from their phones. The overall campaign encouraged a 25% increase in app downloads and generated more than 222 million impressions.

“To buy premium digital display ads delivering equivalent impressions, it would have cost more than $2, 300, 000,” Calvin Peters, Walgreens’ public relations and digital communications manager said in a Path to Purchase Institute interview. Influencers are a great way for businesses to encourage purchases from consumers by using a face that consumers have a personal connection to, boosting the chances for a customer to personally connect with the product.

Personalization To enhance the personalization of in-store shopper marketing, Walgreens found a way to integrate on-shelf products with personalized digital experiences. Clear skin is an essential to starting school off on the right foot, and consumers often spend a great deal of time looking for the right product for their skin. Neutrogena simplified the acne product selection process with a quiz that takes less than two minutes and asks the shopper about their skin type, breakout frequency and skin sensitivity. Shoppers were driven to the quiz by large in-aisle POP displays that enticed shoppers to visit the quiz link. At the end of the quiz, the shopper receives their own personalized acne care routine, which includes a list of the products they suggest, price points and product reviews. Shoppers looking to purchase the Neutrogena products suggested to them were also offered a $2 off coupon when they used their Walgreens card.

Social Responsibility Another way in which Walgreens amplified their back-to-school marketing was by incorporating social responsibility. They partnered with Me to We, an innovative social enterprise that utilizes the best business practices while increasing social awareness. The Me to We product line at Walgreens includes colored pencils, notebooks and backpacks, each featuring their own unique code that allows customers to go online and see where their purchase made a positive impact. 50% of the profits made from Me to We products go directly to empower and build WE Charity communities in underdeveloped countries.

This isn’t the first time Walgreens worked with Me to We to leverage the power of charitable community. Walgreens and Unilever paired up last year to run a campaign called “Give H2oPE to Others,” which donated 5 gallons of clean water to communities in need for each product purchased. The campaign generated a 50% incremental dollar sales lift during the season and a 16% bump in store traffic. Not only did the campaign win a Shopper Marketing Effie, but it helped spread awareness of the global water crisis and shoppers felt rewarded by helping out.

As students start school and the 2017 shopping season comes to a close, we can expect Walgreens to continue to analyze the trends in shopping behavior and use these to push successful campaigns. Retailers should look to them for inspiration when building their back-to-school strategies.

]]>Roadmap to Digital Transformationhttp://www.cierant.com/roadmap-to-digital-transformation/ Thu, 31 Aug 2017 19:19:26 +0000http://www.cierant.com/?p=6061The growth of digital technology adoption has shaken every industry, but few industries have been impacted as deeply as consumer goods. Cited as one of the ‘least digital’ industries, with only $47 million spent on digital investments in 2014, the industry has been challenged to make the necessary shifts required to stay competitive and relevant to the digital consumer.

What the CPG industry is lacking is digital transformation, but what exactly is digital transformation? Digital transformation is a strategic business response to rapid technology growth. It is a complete reshaping of business models, typically driven by disruption. Disruption can be caused by multiple factors, including emerging technologies, changing customer behaviors and demands, and environmental shifts, whether they be political, social or economic. These disruptions are inevitable, but with the right digital transformation approach, companies can easily adapt to them and keep up with the needs of their market.

Companies leading the way in digital transformation have all followed a roadmap comprised of the following three essentials:

Define a Clear Strategy In a 2015 Digital Business Global Executive Study conducted by Deloitte and MIT Sloan Management Review, 4,800 executives were surveyed on the barriers to achieving digital transformation. Of those surveyed, 1,248 were from “digitally immature” organizations, meaning businesses in the early stages of digital adoption. 50% of these respondents cited the absence of a defined strategy as the greatest barrier to their business’s digital transformation.

Lack of a well-defined strategy can effect a company’s culture, as well as its operational management. Having organized meetings with all key players of your company to agree on a digital mission and devise a plan for how to integrate this mission across all facets of the company is the first and most crucial step towards digital transformation.

Take Risks & Adapt to Change Once you’ve defined your strategy, the next step is to take the risks needed to move forward. The Digital Business Global Executive Study found that digitally mature organizations are more comfortable taking risks. This comfort with risk, combined with a mix of collaborative work styles, has been cited as one of the key drivers of digital enterprise innovation.

Determining the appropriate amount of risk to take can prove to be a hurdle for those just embarking on the journey towards digital transformation, but digital fluency doesn’t require master knowledge of technology. What it does require, is the ability to gauge the value a new technology could bring to the organization’s future, as well as determining how the technology would fit into the organization’s digital strategy from a brand-building perspective.

Taking the risk of investing in new technologies is just the beginning though. Companies must also invest in consumer analytics and operational agility, as consumers behaviors and trends are constantly changing and drastically vary from one generation to the next. Organizations must leverage the flexibility of the technology stacks they invest in to better understand and respond to the needs of changing markets.

Evolve your Consumer Journey In a 2015 Salesforce marketing report, 86% of senior-level marketers said that it’s absolutely critical to create a cohesive customer journey. The use of mobile applications, marketing analytics, CRM tools and content management were deemed some of the most effective tools for driving a seamless customer journey.

As marketing approaches evolve from telling consumers what to think, to proactively working to understand and respond to their behaviors, the digital customer journey is all about responsiveness. To foster the responsiveness that a successful customer journey depends on, real-time consumer data capture is required. Such real-time data capture allows for personalization of future interactions, and insight into where best to place your digital investments.

The road to digital transformation may have incremental steps, but it’s an all-encompassing transformation with a larger purpose—to become more agile, efficient, and customer-centric. No matter where a company is within their digital transformation journey, it all begins with a commitment from the c-suite to make it an operational imperative, followed by the sharing and implementation of this commitment across the enterprise.

By digital enabling your people and processes, it is then that you can best serve your digital customers, as a digital consumer is best understood and engaged by a digital business.

]]>Three Ways to Optimize Website Conversionhttp://www.cierant.com/three-ways-to-optimize-website-conversion/ Mon, 31 Jul 2017 20:56:39 +0000http://www.cierant.com/?p=6028With consumers adopting online healthcare shopping behaviors at a rapid pace, a health insurers’s website has become the first point of contact between a health plan and the consumer. With this, it’s critical that a health insurer’s website provides prospects with insight into the company’s brand value and customer experience, which means delivering compelling content and a user-friendly experience.

Insurance Digital Revolution (IDR) released a study in 2016 regarding digital technology in healthcare industry. According to the study, more than half of the health plan agents surveyed said their company websites were average to poor and only 8% rated their website excellent. More significantly, of the over 4,3000 health insurance agents and brokers surveyed, 60% admitted that their sites are average to poor. The biggest drawback was a lack of functionality, with fewer than a quarter of respondents saying customers had the ability to receive quotes from their sites. Poor websites with no lead generation strategy or integration of self-service tools are preventing sales teams from being successful and health plans from maximizing customer acquisition.

In order to transform your website into a lead generation driver and customer experience builder, consider these three key elements:

1. Captivating Content Publishing content on your website focused on the topic of health insurance and open enrollment can guide the way for prospects to find your agency through a search engine such as Google. The more relevant and engaging your content is, the more likely you are to rank higher in search results. One of the easiest ways to publish content and demonstrate your credibility is to incorporate a blog on your website. In doing this, you open the opportunity to publish relevant blog content before and during open enrollment around common search terms, commonly asked questions, and trending topics, effectively garnering new organic leads and increasing SEO with each new blog post.

When crafting website blog content, it is important to always determine the desired action or takeaway for the reader once they have finished reading the post. This means ending the article with a clear action path, whether it be a form to submit an inquiry, schedule a consultation or opt-in to receive regular email communications. It is also critical to write posts with compelling introductions and ensure you are writing in the write tone and level of sophistication for your audience, making sure to not include terminology that may be foreign to them without providing a definition. Including images also works to increase readership and enables more effective social media blog promotion, however, imagery must be used as a content supplement rather than in lieu, as search engines cannot correlate what an image represents, making it less likely for the content to appear in a search.

2. Search Engine Optimization Utilizing search engine optimization to build your website traffic can be time-consuming, but an understanding of your prospect’s online shopping behaviors can help. Using Google Analytics is a great tool for this. In seeing what pages on your website are generating the highest traffic and what the most common site navigation flow is, you can identity which pages are the weak leaks, not delivering the answers consumers are looking for, and which pages contain effective content. Evaluate what the highest traffic pages are doing differently – do they offer downloadable resources – do they leverage keywords with higher search volume? When considering what keywords to leverage, common health plans terms and questions searched by consumers can be great to use during open enrollment, however, branded keywords have proven to better drive traffic while reducing the cost-per-lead by more than 50%. Last, when configuring your paid search campaigns, ensure you employ the click-to-call option for mobile. Doing so will allow those who use search on their mobile devices to click the call button displayed in your paid search ad, counting as a pay-per-call lead. Today, many consumers with questions will call the listed number of the local agent that they find online, making geo-targeted, search-based ads supported by SEO critical.

3. Ease of Navigation Healthcare websites are expected to give members access to an abundance of information, but sometimes it can be difficult to organize it in a way that is member-friendly. According to PR Week, consumers are more likely to use websites that are easy to navigate rather than those known as “trustworthy” to find health information. SVP, Tom Jones of Makovsky, explains how this is because it’s all about the patient experience. This experience is what creates trust between health plans and their customers. Integration of high-utility search functions, plan comparison tools, request forms, live instant messaging options and more, grant patients access to the information they seek in a simpler and faster way.

Ensuring that each page is clear and easy to navigate on your website is actually required by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In fact, it is the first requirement listed in section 100 of the 2018 draft Medicare Marketing Guidelines (MMG). One possible way to improve ease of navigation is by organizing your prospective member information separate from your enrollment resource tools separate and member information. As you make these website enhancements, ensure that you are adhering to CMS requirements and that you have a website checklist of the requirements. Last, don’t forget about your third-party websites. One of the major changes proposed by CMS in the 2018 draft MMG is the addition of section 100.7 on third-party websites. CMS expects plans to be monitoring these sites in addition to their own, so compliance is critical, in addition to user experience.

To schedule a consultative analysis of your website strategy with our experts or to learn about what Cierant’s web development services can do for your business, please call 203-731-3555. We offer a variety of solutions to improve the design, functionality and user experience of health insurer’s websites while maintaining CMS compliance across all facets.